MOSCOW, May 3 (RIA Novosti) - About 500 rescuers have joined an operation to recover bodies from the Black Sea after an Armenian airliner crashed near the Russian coast early on Wednesday, emergency services said.
A total of 113 passengers and crew were killed when an Airbus A-320 belonging to Armenia's Armavia Airlines flying from the capital, Yerevan, crashed about six kilometers from the coast en route to an airport in Adler, which services the resort of Sochi.
Yevgeny Serebryakov, a deputy minister of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, said, "The rescue operation is continuing despite poor weather."
The ministry reported earlier that it had recovered 25 bodies.
Serebryakov added that the ministry also sent a group of psychologists to support passengers' relatives who had gathered at the airport in Adler.
The recovery operation involves about 20 boats and a Be-200 amphibious aircraft, the ministry said earlier, adding that two more Be-200s would fly to the scene if necessary.
